By Caroline Adeola Akinlotan
SAT, 6 AUGUST 2016-The Nigerian housing market to all intents and purposes is an evolving market on the world platform. It is evolving within an unstructured framework as there are no real working laws and regulations to cover the whole property industry. The few laws and regulations that have been put in place are not strictly enforced without any proper monitoring structures in place. I guess if we were to analyse this industry properly we will find that the problems with the property market, building industry and with a lot of other industries is largely due to the lack of importance placed on legislation, weak enforcement and the mindset of the people which unfortunately is geared towards cutting corners. I believe that if these can be taken care of, then we will see proper working structures, enhancing and growing the property market.
In the UK and USA, before any business takes off, there are laid down processes to follow and swift penalties if these are breached. Everyone there knows this, the laws are available and known to all, builders, artisans and users all have a duty to understand the law before they start work. The Developer and Estate Agent know their roles and have a duty to let the client know what their rights are and how they are covered by their purchases. Everything is transparent and regulated from the price of building materials, salaries and house prices. House prices abroad in a certain area and of a certain size commands roughly the same price in sales and rent despite the finishing and decoration, but here in Nigeria, it is not unusual to find a three bedroom apartment in Lekki1 selling for N50m and a similar apartment next door asking for N70m just because the landlord used Dulux paint and feels his property is better finished!
There are so many ”developers” and landlords now in the property market who were previously into other professions but have made money through “various means” and now want to put that money to good use by being “Property Developers”. The property market seems to be extremely buoyant and over supplied at present. Too many empty properties are sitting around. There is a glaring lack of adequate training for many of these new fortune seeker Developers who do not know how to select good Surveyors, Architects and Builders or even know the difference between them, as a result we have some awfully built properties on the market that are sold to innocent investors who sooner or later will count their losses or spend many more millions bringing the property up to some decent liveable standard. In some unfortunate circumstances, these properties are rented out for two years or more and the tenants left to do all the repair works as they will not get a refund on their rent which they paid upfront before realizing the property was in such bad repair condition. The Lagos Tenancy Law has provisions to protect tenants from unscrupulous landlords, but not many tenants are aware of this and even if they are how to start the legal process? Even when are aware of the law, the fear of the perceived protracted process puts them off
Many countries like America, Asia, Dubai, parts of Europe and the UK have gone through their own housing problems and from these have developed robust systems for monitoring and regulating their systems. Maybe we need to go through our own unique mistakes to learn what works for us instead of just copying and pasting their own structures which are so inherently different from ours.
First and foremost we need Laws and regulations that work, we need training and monitoring for registered professionals. There are a few professional bodies that can be accessed on line to check the validity of the Estate Agents and Surveyors. Nigerian Institute of Estate Surveyors and Valuers(NIESV) The Association of Estate Agents in Nigeria(AEAN) These bodies can offer advice and point buyers, tenants and developers in the right direction before proceeding with purchases and even afterwards.
Caroline Adeola Akinlotan is managing director, RSG Property Services. rsgproperty@gmail.com, info@rsgpropertyservices.com
